tank move or upgrade?

mauler

Active Member
I'm gonna be moving in a month or two and I'm just curious to know if anyone has any tips or advice on how to move a tank without it resulting in a crash.
My other thought was maybe use this opportunity to upgrade to either a bigger tank. So any thoughts or opinions would be very helpful.
 

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Upgrading is always a plus lol. Moving it depends how far. I moved mine about 5miles w no issues. I took out all tank water but enough to keep sand damp. I used totes to move fish and about 50% of tank water. Then added old and new water, replaced rock. I didn't have as much as I do now. Waited for tank temp to get where it should be and added fish. I did use small heaters in fish totes.
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
If you can upgrade, now is the perfect time to do so. Since everything will be torn down, it'll be easier to transfer everything to the new tank. While a bit of a pain, it's not that hard to move the tank and set it back up... depending on tank size, of course. I hauled my 125 a couple hundred miles when I got it. I had a 55 gallon plastic drum w/lid that held the live rocks and filled with tank water. I bought a bait keeper insulated bucket with air pump for the fish. Drained the tank down so the sand was just barely covered with water (to prevent sloshing). Everything made the trip just fine, and the fish went into the holding tank (set up weeks before) until I could get the main tank set back up.

When I got home with it, I found all kinds of things that I wanted to redo, like redo the plumbing, add an extra 120 lbs of live sand, add a refugium, etc., so it was a month before the fish got to move back in. I could have set up a brand new tank in the time it took me to revamp the old tank. Like I said at the beginning of this post... if you can upgrade, now is the perfect time. It'll be a little more effort getting it set up, but if you're going to be setting a tank up anyway, it might as well be the tank you want, right?
 

mauler

Active Member
If I can find a good deal on a tank I'll upgrade.
I don't think I can keep my fish out of the for a month I have to many fish it would be to expensive and space consuming to buy holding tanks and other equipment to keep them alive. So would it be possible to move the tank and get the back in it safely in one day?
 

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Possible? Yes. Easy? No. You need to keep all your live rock live no die off. Your filter media live there is a ton of good bacteria in there. Have alot of fresh sw mixed and ready so if it does start cycling u can keep it in check w water changes
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Upgrade isn't hard at all...the established rock and such means you don't have to wait for a cycle. The amount of good bacteria already matches what is in your tank. When I moved from Wisconsin to Illinois, I went from a 75g to a 90g...all moved in one day. Put wet saltwater paper towels over the rock, and maybe a half inch of water in the bottom of the rock tub, you shouldn't have any die off to worry about. The tiny critters can live a little out of the water and find a hole or cranny in the rock to keep themselves alive...the little amount of water in the tub will give them an even better chance if they jump off the rock.

Have new mixed saltwater for the tank all set before you move, waiting at the new place. It's a little bit of a hassle, but I made a trip the night before the move to the new place do that. With the water mixed through the night and waiting, all I had to do was break down the tank and move in...first thing, reset the tank or the new one, and get the critters back into their new home ASAP.

The secret to an easy move is to not clean anything, don't change the media, change out nothing. The sand, if are worried about toxins, swish it around in the old water before removing it. That will release anything in the sand. You can even add some more new mixed clean saltwater, and swish it around again if you really want to clean it up. It's very tempting to want to clean everything up once it's all broke down...don't do it.

You don't need to keep any old saltwater, there is nothing wrong with replacing 100% of the water. The good bacteria is on the rocks, and sand, as well as all the media and plastic (power heads and such). The good bacteria on all of those things will prevent a spike.

As Jay suggested...keep some ready mixed saltwater on hand, just in case you do get any kind of spike and need to do a water change...I never did, and I moved 5Xs already, but I was prepared just in case. In all my moves, the only thing I ever lost was a cleaner shrimp, one was fine, but the other just fell over dead just before I was ready to transfer them into the new digs. Fish go in separate bags, each coral in it's own bag (stressed corals release toxins for chemical warfare, so even little frags need their own bag) and rock in a tub. Acclimate the fish and coral to the reset tank, just like you did when you fist got them.
 

mauler

Active Member
I'm feeling a lot more confident about this now. I think I'm gonna try to upgrade it just sounds easier and I'd love to get a bigger tank.
 
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